The first passengers departed from the newly renovated Tampere Airport on an airBaltic aircraft early yesterday morning

Finavia’s development and modernisation project of several months has been completed at Tampere Airport. An investment of more than EUR 17 million, the project increases the airport’s capacity and thus contributes to the vibrancy and accessibility of the entire Pirkanmaa region.

The first passengers arrived at the renovated Tampere Airport already in the early hours of the morning. They boarded airBaltic which was the first scheduled flight to take off from the brand new runway 13 August at 5:25 a.m. The flight was BT358 towards Riga.

The early-morning passengers may have felt slightly less groggy as they arrived in the terminal, as Finavia greeted then with pastries and coffee to celebrate the airport’s opening.

“Our airport is in great shape now. We welcome all of Pirkanmaa to enjoy their fully modernised local airport. Tampere Airport has excellent connections to three important air traffic hubs: Helsinki, Riga and Stockholm. They offer passengers a fantastic range of connections to everywhere in the world. Direct flights from Tampere are available to Bremen, Budapest and, starting next autumn, Malaga,” explains Mari Nurminen, Airport Director and Area Manager at Finavia.

Finavia’s total investment in the renovation of Tampere Airport’s air traffic areas was more than EUR 17 million. Some EUR 15 million was used on expanding the apron and renewing the runway. In addition, the runway’s instrument landing system was renewed and precision approach procedures were improved for a sum of EUR 2 million.

“Thanks to the new, wider turn pads, we will be able to extend our services to wide-body aircraft. The modernisation project also included replacing the airport lights with energy-efficient  LED lights and improving the recovery of anti-freeze agents and related soil protection. The new ILS devices improve air traffic’s possibilities to operate even in bad weather conditions,” Nurminen says.

Nurminen thanks the contractors for their good work and the airport customers for their flexibility. Most of the work was conducted in the middle of operating air traffic.

“Such an extensive development and modernisation project is always a tremendous effort, as completion is governed by tight schedules and work is conducted in challenging conditions,” Nurminen says.

The renovation started in April and was finished on 12 August. Military and general aviation began their operations on the new runway already the same day.